Resuscitator



RESUSCITATOR Filed Aug. 17, 1959 Hermon A. Mursden INVENTOR.

ATTORNEX ijinited rates 3,621,836 RESUSCETATOR Herman A. Marsden, 22721Sylvan, Woodland Hills, Calif. Filed Aug. 17, 1959, Ser. No. 834,069 1Claim. (ill. 128-29) This invention relates generally to apparatus forperforming artificial respiration, and more particularly to aresuscitator for applying mouth-to-mouth insufilation to a patient.

This application is a continuation-in-part of application Serial Number750,982, filed July 25, 1958, entitled Resuscitator and now abandoned,

It has long been recognized in the prior art that mouthto-mouthinsufilation is one of the most efiective means of reviving anasphyxiating person. This method of artificial respiration has, however,not been used to any great extent because of several disadvantagesinherent therein.

One of the first disadvantages inherent in practicing mouthto-mouthinsufiiation is the intimate contact which exists between the personapplying the mouth-to-mouth insufiiation and the patient. Mostindividuals are reluctant to place their mouth directly upon the mouthof a stranger, even for the purpose of reviving him because of thepossibility of contracting some contagious disease, or the like.

Another disadvantage normally inherent in mouthto-mouth insuffiation isthe difficulty encountered in keeping the throat of the victim open atall times in order to permit the free passage of air into the lungs andout of the lungs. This is normally accomplished by rotating the head andparticularly the chin of the victim up and back, from the body, in orderto straighten the neck, thus opening up the throat passage. This isnormally quite difiicult to do when one is practicing mouth-tomouthinsuffiation as heretofore known in the prior art.

Another disadvantage of this well known method of resuscitation is thefear by the one practicing the mouthto-mouth insufiiation that thevictim, or patient, will expel matter from his body which would have atendency to be projected into the mouth of the one practicing the mouthto-mouth insur'llation.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide aresuscitator which may be used in the prac tice of mouth-to-mouthinsufilation while, at the same time, eliminating the intimate contactheretofore deemed necessary in order to practice this method ofresuscitation.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a resuscitatorfor practicing mouth-to-mout'h insufiiation which is exceedingly simpleto use.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide aresuscitator for practicing mouth-to-mouth insufiiation which is small,rugged and fully portable.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide aresuscitator for practicing mouth-to-mouth insufllation which has nomoving, adjustable, or renewal parts.

In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a resuscitatoris provided which may be readily inserted into the mouth of anasphyxiating victim and which has provided as a part thereof means forkeeping the teeth of the victim apart and for permitting easy rotationof the jaw upwardly and outwardly from the body in order to at all timeskeep the throat passage open. Means is also provided as a part of theresuscitator for externally sealing the mouth cavity of the patient, orvictim, thereby insuring that the air which is expelled by the onepracticing the mouth-to-mouth insuffiation enters the lungs of thevictim, or patient. As a part 3ZL33 Patented Feb. 20, 1962 of thesealing means of the resuscitator, there is provided additional meansfor easily maintaining the seal about the external portion of the mouthcavity at all 1 times, thus enabling persons of any age or size topractice mouth-to-mouth insufiiation upon all persons irrespective ofage or size.

In accordance with a specific embodiment of the present invention, thereis provided an elongated tubular member having an opening therethrough.Atlixed to one end of the tubular member is an arcuate member which isresilient and which has concave and convex surfaces. The resilientarcuate member also defines an opening thcrethrough which is coaxialwith the opening through the tubular member. A pair of protrusions isafiixed to the concave surface of the arcuate member and are spacedapart and disposed one upon each side of the opening provided throughthe tubular member and the arcuate member. An additional pair ofprotrusions project from the convex surface of the arcuate memberthereby providing grips or finger holds for the one practicing themouth-to-mouth insufiiation.

The novel features of the present invention are set forth in theappended claims. Other and more specific objects of the presentinvention will become apparent from a consideration of the followingdescription taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing which isprovided by way of example only and is not intended as a limitation uponthe present invention and in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating the resuscitator of thepresent invention in use;

FIG. 2 is an elevational view of a resuscitator in accordance with thepresent invention; and

FIG. 3 is a view, partly in cross section, taken about lines 33 of FIG.2.

Referring now to the various figures illustrated in the drawing, inwhich similar elements are designated by the same reference numeral, aresuscitator is shown in its preferred embodiment. As is illustratedtherein, the resuscitator includes an elongated member 11 which isgenerally in the configuration of a tube having an opening 12therethrough. Affixed to one end of the tube is an arcuate member 13which is generally in the shape of an elongated rectangular piece ofmaterial that has been bent into a substantially semi-circular shape.The arcuate member 13 is preferably constructed of a resilient typematerial which may be spread apart and which, upon release, will resumethe shape generally as illustrated in FIG. 2.

Arcuate member 13 has an opening provided therethrough which iscontinuous with opening 12 and also includes a concave surface 14 and aconvex surface 15. A pair of spaced apart protrusions 16 and 17 areatfixed to the concave surface 14 of the arcuate member 13. Theprotrusions 16 and 17 are disposed one on each side of the opening whichis provided through the tubular member 11 and the arcuate member 13 andthereby form an unobstructed continuation of the opening as illustratedat 18.

As is illustrated in the drawing, the protrusions 16 and 17 are wide atthe base and become more narrow at their terminus. This enables the onepracticing the mouth-to-mou-th insuffiation to insert the resuscitatorinto the mouth of the patient more easily. It should be noted that thewidest part of the protrusions 16 and 17 is disposed upon the concavesurface 14 transverse of the arcuate member 13. This serves as a meansto spread the mouth of the patient wide apart and as a fulcrum forrotation of the jaw.

The additional pair of protrusions 19 and 24} extend from the convexsurface 15 of the arcuate member 13. The protrusions 19 and 2% aredisposed one upon each side of and adjacent to the elongated tubularmember 11,

and may be used as finger grips as described below. As can be seen moreclearly in FIG. 3, the finger grips extend from the convex surface andare disposed longitudinally on the arcuate member 13. As is illustratedby the cross-hatching in FIG. 3, the entire resuscitator as illustratedin the drawings may, for example only, be constructed of a plastic typematerial, such as polyethylene or the like.

In operation, the one practicing the mouth-to-mouth insuiiiation insertsthe protrusions 16 and 17 into the mouth of the victim or patient insuch a manner that the teeth are spread and retained apart. By insertingthe protrusions l6 and 17 fully into the mouth of the patient, while atthe same time holding the arcuate member 132 slightly spread apart, themouth cavity or the patient or victim is externally thoroughly sealedupon release of the arcuate member 13 so that it once again assumes theposition substantially as shown in FIG. 2. In this manner, the air whichis blown through the tubular member 11 enters the mouth and lungs of thepatient.

In order to insure that the air which is blown into the mouth of thepatient does, in fact, enter the patients lungs, the lower jaw of thepatient is rotated. upwardly and outwardly away from the body bypivoting the teeth of the patient upon the protrusions 16 and 17 whichhave been inserted fully into the patients mouth. In this man ner theone practicing the mouth-to-mouth insufilation may readily and easilyopen the throat passage of the victim, or patient, while at the sametime easily practicing the mouth-to-mouth insufliation. The rotation ofthe jaw may be accomplished by hooking the fingers under the jaw of thepatient and applying pressure in an upward direction.

In order to insure a perfect seal about the exterior of the patientsmouth cavity during the period of time that the mouth-to-mouthinsufflation is being practiced, the one practicing the insufilation mayplace his thumbs upon the protrusions 19 and 20 in such a manner thatthe thumbs rest between the tubular member 11 and the edge of theprotrusions 19 and 20. Slight pressure may be exerted by the thumbs inorder to maintain the seal at all times. The upper portion of the thumbsmay then be utilized to close the nose cavity of the patient in order toclose all possible exits for the air as it is blown into the lungs ofthe patient. This position of the hands is illustrated in FIG. 1 inoutline form.

If the one practicing the mouth-to-mouth insufilation has bands whichare not large enough to enable him to use his thumbs for the dualpurpose of maintaining this seal and closing the nose cavity, he maythen use his index fingers upon the protrusions 19 and 20 as abovedescribed, and the tips of his thumbs to close the nose cavity of thepatient. Such a position leaves the remaining fingers free to raise thejaw of the patient.

After the resuscitator of the present invention has been inserted intothe mouth of the patient, and the above procedure taken, the onepracticing the mouth-to-mouth insufilation will place his mouth upon theend portion 21 of the tubular member 11 and will exhale his breaththrough the resuscitator and into the mouth, throat and lungs of thevictim. He will then remove his mouth from the portion 21 of theresuscitator permitting the natural elasticity of the lungs and chest ofthe patient to expel the air through the tubular member 11 and to theatmosphere. The one practicing the mouth-to-mouth insufiiation willthen, in a regular manner, continue to exhale his breath into the lungsof the patient and permit the patient to exhale the air from his lungsthrough the resuscitator.

There has thus been disclosed an artificial respiration device which maybe utilized for the practice of mouthto-mouth insuffiation which issimple, rugged, and may be utilized by any person while, at the sametime, eliminating the inherent disadvantages of this method ofpracticing artificial respiration.

What is claimed is:

A 'resuscitator having no moving or adjustable parts for applying'mouth-to-mouth insuffiation to an asphyxiating patient while preventingdirect contact between the pa-- tient and the one applying theinsufilation, said resusci tator including a unitary, molded, plasticmember having a hollow elongated tube portion, a substantiallyrectangular resilient member formed in a semicircular configuration andhaving a convex and a concave surface at one end of said tube portionfor externally sealing the mouth cavity of said patient, said resilientmember defining an opening therethrough continuous with the openingthrough said tube portion, a pair of flat protrusions each having a baseand a terminal portion, said protrusions being aihxed at their baseportions to said concave surface and transverse of the longitudinal axisof said resilient sealing member one on each side of said opening, saidbase portion of said protrusions being wider than said terminal portionthereby to fit between the front teeth of said pa tient and allowing thelower jaw of said patient to be moved upwardly to open the throatpassage of said patient to permit air to be forced into the lungs ofsaid patie'nt, and a substantially triangular member having an inwardlycurved side extending upwardly from said convex surface of said sealingmember on each side of said tube portion and spaced therefrom by anamount sulficient to provide, in conjunction with the exterior wall ofsaid tube, a pair of finger grips for urging said rectangular resilientsealing member into sealing engagement about the exterior of saidpatients mouth.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,050,620 DeFord Jan. 14, 1913 1,266,410 Conrad May 14, 1918 2,280,050Alexander Apr. 21, 1942 FOREIGN PATENTS 292,480 Germany Aug. 7, 1919

